Prof. Steve Benford

Abstract :
The traditional tenets of HCI are grounded in making the user’s interactions with computers as comfortable – efficient, ergonomic, satisfying, legible and predictable – as possible. However, as HCI increasingly turns its attention to cultural uses of computing, from highbrow arts to mainstream entertainment, so the game is changing. Our experience of artworks is often far from comfortable. Our engagements with games and sports may push our minds and bodies to the limit. I will therefor set out an argument for deliberately and systematically designing with discomfort in order to deliver powerful cultural experiences. I will identify the potential benefits of uncomfortable interactions under the general headings of entertainment, enlightenment and sociality. I will review a series of artworks and performances that have deliberately employed discomfort to create unusually powerful and provocative interactive experiences. By reflecting on these and other examples, I will articulate a suite of tactics for engineering four primary forms of discomfort in interactive experiences - visceral, cultural, control and intimacy. I will reveal how moments of discomfort need to be embedded into an overall experience which ultimately resolves them, requiring a further consideration of the dramatic acts of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement. Finally, I will consider an ethical framework for designing uncomfortable interactions, revisiting key ethical issues such as consent, withdrawal, privacy and risk.

Prof. Patrick Baudisch

Abstract :
"I believe that computer science and mechanical engineering are about to unite. In the future, users will build machines and solve mechanical problems by digitizing the involved objects using 3D scanners, solving the problem in the digital domain using the means of computer science, and converting the result back to the mechanical domain using a 3D printer. This will allow solving mechanical problems with the effectiveness and efficiency of computer science. This will not only change mechanical engineering, but also allow computing to reach its next phase, which is to merge into matter itself, where the physical matter of objects will also perform the computation. In this talk, I will take a closer look at this unification process and try to point out the five grand challenges it brings for researchers in the field of human-computer interaction and in particular personal fabrication"

Prof. Jun Ho Oh

Abstract :
The DARPA Robotics Challenge, which was motivated by nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, in 2011,
consisted of increasingly demanding two competitions, DRC trail and DRC final, over two years.
The goal was to accelerate progress in robotics for humans and mitigate the impacts of natural or man-made
disasters. The DRC Finals competition challenged participating robotics teams and their robots to complete a
difficult course of eight tasks relevant to disaster response, among them driving alone, walking through rubble,
tripping circuit breakers, turning valves and climbing stairs.

25 teams from worldwide participated in this demanding challenges but only three of them completed the
mission in the specified time limit, one hour. Even the first place winner, team KAIST, took 44 minutes to
complete. Many teams struggled a lot in operating their robots. Most of the robot experienced real ‘disastrous’
situation as falling down before entering the disaster scene or during the tasks. Some of them were from
mechanical failure, the others were from operator’s mistakes or from bipedal walking difficulties, etc.

Prof. Jun Ho Oh will review the DRC final process and discuss about what the difficulties were, what happened
and what we learned from the challenge. He will also explain some details and winning strategy about the
robot ‘DRC Hubo’.

"This is the end of the DARPA Robotics Challenge but only the beginning of a future in which robots can work alongside people to reduce the toll of disasters,"
- Arati Prabhakar, DARPA Director -